"Professor" John Cleese presents a lecture on the God gene. The lecture, of course, is a spoof of Dawkinsian sociobiology that holds that all of our behavior is a product of genetic influences which have evolved over vast stretches of time:
Those scientists searching for a "God gene" are trying to show that if belief in God is genetic then there's no objective reason to think God really exists. The claim "God exists" is rendered trivial, it's thought, if our belief in God is genetically caused.
Unfortunately for these scientists, the attempt to discredit belief in God by showing that the belief has a genetic provenience is too clever by half. It winds up defeating itself.
If our belief in God is a product of our genes then it would seem that all of our beliefs must be similarly caused or influenced, but this means that the very belief that our genes cause our beliefs is itself caused by our genes. If that's so, then there's no reason why we should believe it. The belief that beliefs are genetically caused has no objective truth value. The claim is absurd, and Cleese's skit does a nice job of illustrating the absurdity.
HT: Uncommon Descent
RLC
